Grainger plc, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord with 8,941 operational rental homes and 8,950 in its pipeline, today announces its financial results for the year to 30 September 2020.
Helen Gordon, Chief Executive, said: “We have continued to invest, grow and improve the business, while delivering strong results and attractive returns for our shareholders. This year has emphasised the importance of a good home like never before, and Grainger’s unrelenting focus on providing good quality, safe homes with great customer service, has proved as relevant as ever during these challenging times.
“We have continued to pursue our ESG commitments with enthusiasm through the year, including good progress toward our plan to achieve our target of net zero carbon in the operation of our buildings by 2030 and our community engagement plan underlining the importance the Grainger team places on delivering positive social value.
“Having successfully navigated the business through the political uncertainties at the start of the year, we faced the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic determined to emerge stronger. Our strategy to respond by “innovating, communicating and improving” underpinned our strong performance for the year.
“Our in-house operating platform has proved its value, enabling us to continue to serve our customers and continue to let and sell properties in a Covid-secure manner, with minimal reliance on external third parties. Average occupancy for the year remained high at 95%, rent collection remained robust at 97% on average and we have continued to deliver rental growth. We delivered a strong sales performance, in line with last year, achieving prices at premiums to valuation.
“Throughout the year we continued to deliver and invest in high quality modern rental homes. We successfully progressed the lease up of Brook Place in Sheffield and launched Solstice Apartments in Milton Keynes and Millet Place in East London. In total, we launched 612 new rental homes this year. We successfully secured planning committee approval for our Waterloo scheme, our Besson Street scheme in partnership with Lewisham Borough Council, and for our Southall Sidings scheme through Connected Living London, our partnership with TfL. We also expanded our pipeline with six new schemes, representing over £400m of new investment and 1,475 new homes. We have the potential to more than double net rental income again through the schemes in our investment pipeline.
“In the first half of the financial year we successfully raised equity for our growth plans followed by a bond issue in the summer, and we enter our new financial year in a position of both financial and operational strength which will enable us to continue to deliver good quality, safe homes to a growing number of customers, as well as long term, attractive returns to shareholders.”